Afterlife (Second Eden #1) (24 page)

“Go to Hell. I hate you,” Abel snapped.

“I like this guy,” Amber told Dino.

“Didn’t ask you,” Dino said. “I’d almost prefer the blackjackets over her company, believe it or not. We’re looking for two souls who would’ve passed through the census some time back. Once you give us the information, we’ll be out of your hair for good.”

Abel looked past them to the door. He strummed his fingers on the desk, then rolled his hand. “Go on. I’m a poltergeist, not a spirit. I need names.”

“Marina Arshakuni. Probably died ten, twenty years ago?”

“That’s right,” Amber said. “She was from Armenia, if that helps.”

Abel put his glasses on and sighed. He motioned at the wall, and shelves hidden in the wood burst out. Papers flew into the air, rolling, spinning, and spiraling around one another as Abel’s brow furrowed in concentration.
 

“Every soul is arranged in alphabetical order. There tend to be duplicates, but luckily for you, Arshakuni isn’t what I would call a common name. Give me a moment, please.”

Amber glanced at the doors. She tugged at her jacket and bit her lip.
 

“Ah, there we are.” Abel snapped his fingers. One paper darted from the flock and fluttered between his hands. “Marina Arshakuni. Walked through Census Hall and Record Repository Number Thirty-Two in the Gleaming Triangle district twenty-three years ago.”

“Love that place. Great strip clubs,” Dino said.

Amber and Abel both rolled their eyes. Amber waved at the paper. “Anything else?”

“Says she tested positive for the spirit curse. Actually had a somewhat rare talent with it, if the notes are correct, but seemed quite odd, almost Deep-touched. The Deputy Assistant Census Master of Thirty-Two scheduled a follow up visit ten years later, as regulation requires of course, and they found her in the Crystal District. Owns some shop there, doing what good spirits or smart con artists do: tell fortunes and claim to speak with the living.”

Amber snatched the paper from his hands and read the notes to confirm the man’s story. “The Crystal District doesn’t sound so bad at least.”

“Names can be deceiving,” Abel said. “The Crystal District is home to a bunch of unaligned spirits. They don’t pay the Scarlet Sinners for protection. They don’t much care for the blackjackets, and they sure as hell don’t like the Errand. Frankly, nobody else much likes them, either. Whole place gives good souls the creeps. Only reason it’s still around is so General Chakma can replenish her ranks if she’s running low on spirit users, and it’s an easy travel route between better districts.”

“Also makes for a dramatic atmosphere,” Dino added. “Everybody wants to believe in the psychic in the dark and dusty shadows. It gives them an air of power.”

The first muffled shouts sounded from behind the office doors. Abel jumped at the noise and swatted at the window. “Go! Get out of here. They’re coming and I can’t have you caught in here with me. God knows what they’ll do. If Bone Man’s with them—”

“Hey. I wouldn’t let him hurt you, Abel,” Dino said.

Abel snorted. “Let’s not go there.”

Dino’s cheeks reddened, and he turned his back to the desk. “We’ve gotta go, Amber.”

Amber scrambled around the desk and bent before the Census Master. “My brother. I’m also looking for him. He died about ten years ago—”

Abel cut her off with a wave as blackjackets pounded on the door. “There’s no time. You have to go. Go now!”

“No, please! Just find his paper. His name was Toby Blackwood. He died ten years ago. Can you find his paper? Please, just pull it out of your shelf and I’ll take it with me.
 

The color drained from Abel’s face. “Blackwood.”

Amber recoiled at the look of horror melting Abel’s features. “You know the name?”

“He died ten years ago?”

“During the Ardent Revolution,” Dino said. He turned from the window and focused on the man. “How do
you
know the name, Abel?”

The crashing against the door intensified. Wood splintered. Voices roared. Abel blinked, forcing Amber back with his poltergeist curse. “No. Never heard of him and I’m afraid I can’t be of service to the Errand. Now leave! Guards!
GUARDS!
”

Dino narrowed his eyes. “You bastard. What do you know?”

Amber pushed back against Abel’s power, the splinter of rage in her heart twisting. “You know that name, don’t you? You know Toby Blackwood?”

Abel lifted his chin, his deep breaths swelling with his nostrils as sweat beaded on his temples. His gaze shot to Dino. “You don’t know what you’ve done. We’ll all be dust because of you, just like Zoe!”

“Don’t you
ever
say her name.” Dino jerked Amber from the desk and headed for the wall. “We’ve got to go. The blackjackets will have cursed souls with them and we’re not equipped to handle that.”

“No! Not yet!” Amber kicked Dino away and spun to the Census Master. She bent to him and grabbed his collar, leaning so close their breaths intermingled. “Tell me.”

“No,” he growled, teeth bared. “How … How are you fighting my push? Are you a poltergeist?”

“I don’t know what I am anymore. What I do know is I’d hate to be you right now, the only thing between me and my brother. You will tell me. Tell. Me!”

Abel’s eyes widened, and in them, Amber saw his thoughts, his pleasures, his fears, his sins, all written in the swirling black of the pools of his eyes.
 

Where is Toby?
Her voice pierced the veil of his thoughts. His mind fought her, but she barreled past his defenses.
 

A vision flared. Amber appeared in the Census Master’s office. She sat where Abel sat. No, she
was
Abel, looking through his eyes. A man stood before his desk, young, nervous, and wringing red-knuckled hands. He rocked on his heels and bit his lip. The mop of his wavy brown hair framed his pale skin and bright eyes.
 

“I do apologize about the wait. Name please?” Abel asked.

“Toby Blackwood,” he said.

“Welcome to Afterlife, Mr. Blackwood,” Abel replied. He waved his hand, and his office doors flung open. “My Deputy Assistant will test for which curse you carry, if you carry any at all. He’ll then direct you to a district where you can find a hostel and perhaps a job.”

“But what am I doing here? What is all this?”

“It’s eternity. Do try and make the best of it.” Toby shook Abel’s hand and left the office. As the doors shut, the Census Master pulled a fresh piece of paper from his stack and began scribbling notes on Toby. His name, appearance, demeanor.
 

The doors clicked shut. Abel looked up, only to find mist seeping from beneath them. It pooled before his desk and slowly rose into a swirling, faceless mass.
 

Abel dropped his pen, clearing his throat. “Can I help you?”

The mass reached out, a ghostly hand resting on Toby’s record. “Do not record his name.”

“But I’m the Census Master. It’s my duty to record—”

“Do not record his name.” As the smoke spoke, the paper blackened and turned to ash. The vapor sighed, and the ash flew from the desk.
   

Abel shivered and pressed his back against the seat. “Of … Of … Of course. I’ll not record his name. Certainly. Whatever you say.”

The smoke swirled, shifting in an ever-shrinking vortex until it completely vanished. Abel exhaled, padding his brow with his silk handkerchief. His office doors flung open, and a squat, round man stumbled through the doorway, wide cheeks beet red, bruise purpling on his temple, and sweat staining his collar. “Abel, they up and took him! I started the test, and they just barreled in, dressed in black and acting like they owned the place. Said they operated on orders from the archduke, and when I asked, ‘Who is this bloody archduke?’ they bashed me with their baton and hauled him off. We’ve got to inform the authorities!”

Abel stared at the remains of Toby Blackwood’s record. He took a deep breath and brushed the ash onto the carpet. “I’m terribly sorry about your head, Christopher. Take the rest of the day off.”

“But sir—”

“I insist.” Abel waved his hand, and his assistant slid back into the hall. “Never speak of this again to anyone, else we’ll both be dust before the day ends. I am deadly serious about this.”

Christopher rubbed the blubbery mass of his neck and nodded. “Yes, sir. I think I’ll go home and rest. Maybe enjoy a glass of gin or three. It’s finally coming, isn’t it? What they say is true. Someone’s actually moving against the Assembly.”

“It is. The Revolution has come. God have mercy on us all.”

The vision vanished as her mind snapped back to reality. The bond between her and Abel shattered, the Census Master’s face now pale and covered in sweat. “A spirit? But how so powerful?”

“You knew him? You remembered him! Tell me where he is! Tell me where they took him!”

The doors exploded inward, and blackjackets poured into the room, swords and rifles drawn and faces full of fury. In a flash, Dino was before her, jerking her to his chest. “Sorry, Amber, time to go!”

They burst into a torrent of mist in a hail of rifle bullets that shattered the window behind them. Dino whistled through the broken pane, carrying her as fast as he could manage from Census Hall and Record Repository Number Ninety-Six.

Amber took a seat on the fountain’s rim, glancing around the park for any sign of her secret friend. Dino would kill her if he knew she had snuck out of the hotel, especially after breaking in to the Census Hall and all the chaos and commotion that went along with that little stunt.
 

But she needed the air. Her room in La Couronne was stifling, cramped, and she could only practice floating coins for so long until the boredom threatened to kill her. So instead of floating coins or staring at the wall, she waited for a lull in the street traffic and floated herself out the balcony. It was a rough landing, and a few people stopped to help, but at least she knew she could avoid the front desk attendants who she assumed were Dino’s allies.

She wore a wide-brimmed hat with two long peacock feathers fastened to a silk ribbon. An emerald veil hid her face from prying eyes as she walked into the expansive park. Strangers strolled by, murmuring, chatting, never taking notice of the woman waiting by the fountain, hands folded neatly in her lap. It felt good to be invisible and unnoticed amongst the crowd. In a way, it reminded her of home.
 

The sky burned with the simmering oranges of evening. Amber pulled the coins from her pocket and began to slowly rotate them around her hand. They moved in smooth, regular motions. She smiled. Liam would be impressed.

“Good evening, miss. Quite the control you have on your curse.”

“Thank you,” Amber said, looking up.

A blackjacket stood before her, sporting his long, dark overcoat fastened by brass buttons. He wore the number eight hundred and seventy-six on his collar, kept his long beard dark and heavily-oiled, and the way he tapped his foot on the path did little to calm her suddenly rankled nerves.

The coins collapsed into her clammy hand. She pressed her fist into her lap and plastered on a smile, keeping her face hidden in the shroud. “How can I help you, sir?”

“Out for a late stroll then?”

I’m such an idiot
, Amber thought. “Yes, it’s a nice night and I wanted some fresh air.”

“Hmm. Angel Park’s no slum, but odd to see a single lady lingering unescorted these days. Why, some might say it’s suspicious. You look innocent as a lamb to me, and that almost makes me think, ‘Now isn’t she just a little too innocent?’ Tell me, kind lady, have you ever heard the name Dino Cardona?”

Amber fidgeted in her seat. “I’ve never heard the name. Is he a friend of yours?”

The officer’s frown deepened. “You’ve never heard of Dino Cardona? Why, aside from Faye, he’s probably the most famous fool around. How is it a landed lady like yourself has never heard the name Dino Cardona?” He strummed his baton and waited.

“Well,” Amber said, clearing her throat so she could think, “I’m a new soul. Very new. I don’t know much about Afterlife, I’m afraid. I, ah, I just wanted to come out here and sit. I really didn’t mean to cause any trouble. There was a man I was meeting, but he seems late….”

“Oh, so the lady does have a friend? And he’s late? Or maybe he’s a phantom, and he’s swirling in invisible trails around us right now, waiting for his lady friend to be alone once again.” The blackjacket bent toward her, licking his teeth as he grinned. “Odd that a soul so new should find themselves in a district for the gentry, waiting at the fall of night for a mysterious friend.”

She winced at her stupidity. A newcomer to Afterlife, waiting on a man. This was exactly what the blackjackets were looking for. “He’s just a friend is all,” she said.

Her heart rapped against her ribs. She buried her fists deeper in her lap. The blackjacket leaned closer, slipping the baton from his belt. “What was your name again? Out with it then, let’s not deny a man in Archduke black when he asks a girl a question.”

“There you are!” Liam came trotting around the fountain, beaming a wide and toothy smile. He wiped sweat from his brow and bowed at the officer. “Frank, so good to see you! I see you happened upon my friend. I do apologize for having her wait unattended in the park, what with the new patrols and all it took a bit longer to get here than I expected. You know I saw them dust three souls on my way here? Errand sympathizers no doubt, and a deserved dusting for each and every one of them!”

Amber exhaled, scooting from the soldier so she could bounce up and embrace Liam. “Liam, I thought you’d forgotten about me.”

“You know this girl?” the officer asked Liam.

“Why, of course I do! The lady’s a new poltergeist and needs someone to show her how the curse works. Who better than me? I’ve taken her on as my apprentice!”
 

“Hah! I’m sure she’ll be spinning twenty coins in no time, Liam. So you’re the one putting her up, dressing a new soul in such finery? Tell me true. There’s no amount of coin that can shut me up in this, either. She’s no fool, is she?”